Cool and wet

pick a fight about the MIM your very good at that and i like it!

you're right...what i meant to say was, in my experience the electronics (really, the only other reason i would buy an MIA standard besides for having a lifelong strat) are not up to the quality i expect from americans. i think that, in my experience, the MIM electronics with a little bit of work would do better than the stock HWY1 electronics. In addition, i felt like the neck and fretwork was shoddier than on my MIM (comparing it to the MIM now). And I'm not saying I'm any better at concealing bias than alwaysstrat, i love my MIM and defend it constantly against a certain crew of people, but on gigs recently after finishing all of my work on it people are very very surprised to look under the word Stratocaster and see Made in Mexico on it.

anyways, all of that being said, i have a set of custom shop pickups in my MIM and I love it more than any strat i've played so far. Granted, I would love to some day own a sweet MIA with the glossy fingerboard, spaghetti logo and nitro, but thats just not in the cards right now.

i guess to me, those things are critical elements of the MIAs recent success, and if the same company tries to sell me something that costs more but doesn't perform any better (or, again in my experience, worse) than the MIM then I won't like said guitar.

of course, to come back to my original point at the risk of looking hypocritical....to each his/her own.

_________________
Gear list:
2004 Epiphone Casino
----Peerless, USA electronics
2001 "Firewood" ES-335
----USA electronics, Gibson and DiMarzio PAFs
2001 Cort NTL20 Jumbo Acoustic
2007 Hofner Copy
Vox AC4TV/V112TV
Voice
Fingers
Cowbell

I think the sss Highway one is an EXCELLENT guitar. It DOES have the thin nitro finnish and there's no polyester I can tell from comparing it to an anuthentic 65 Strat...I believe they would have to list the polyester undercoat in the list of specifications or would be in violation of the truth in advertising laws. Just sounds like a Strat snob who doesn't like highway ones. I like em. I think they Rock and feel and sound as good or better that any REGULAR American strat. You just got a highway 1 hater in ninjaboy.

WOW! simply brilliant makinglemonade!!!!

Making lemonade do you still have that problem from 8 months ago when you stormed off in a huff?

As far as polyester or urethane being used as an undercoat its even used as an undercoat with vintage reissue gutars. Even though they cost over twice the price and are advertized as nitro finish. The highway one isnt advertized as a thinskin finish like the hotrods or time machine series and other customshop guitars that dont use a polyester base coat.

http://www.fender.com/products//view_specs.php?full_partno=0100102&name=American+Vintage+%9157+Stratocaster%26reg%3B

Scroll down to finishs.
http://www.adirondackguitar.com/fender/dating.htm

So there you go lemonadeboy. You really ought to do a bit more reading before you start catagorizing people.

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No no and no

nik realy who cares. theres to many of us who own the
great highway one we know what this strat can do
we do beleve its a better than the american standards
and even some of the out ragges priced strats.
so many other sites out there that claim the same
thing we claim( owners of the highway one.)
its only certain few who eaither dont like the
finish or the head stock or the pick ups are to harsh
simple dont buy it or play it if you dont like it.
the bottom line is for every 1 that doesnt like
the highway one strat theres 3 of us who do.

What a hater..get a life! Never get ant aproval when you were younger so now you have to PROVE your right...Good God go play guitar or something..you don't like these guitars so do something else allready...give it a rest...go pee in sombody elses Cherios

Fenders Dirty Little Secret -
The Plastic Coating of Guitars since 1963

Fact:
All Fender Guitars made since 1963 are Polyester coated. Lacquer is put on top of the poly to satisfy the general publics belief that Nitro Cellulose (nitro) Lacquer finished guitars "breathe", "dry" and generally have become the bottom line for creating great tome. I'm talking USA, Vintage collectable instruments that the general public has bought, traded, and sold for over 50 years. They came from the Fender factor with a hard plastic jacket underneath it. A suffocating wolf, masquerading under a cloak of Lacquer Fender later switched to 100% Poly and UltraViolet cured Resin on Squire, Mexican, Japanese, some USA and all other imports till this day.

Fact:
The two-part catalyzed coating named "Fullerplast" (Fuller for Fuller O'Brien, the products creator, and plast for the obvious PLASTIC"), solved all of Fenders finishing problems; encasing the deep wood pores in a self-hardening plastic that wrapped the body in a rock-hard solid coffin. In some cases we have found it to be as thick as a.060 string. Yes, all of the wood moisture and characteristics are sealed in a virtual time-capsule, only to be vented from the body through screw holes and paint fractures. Share this info and be the hit of your next guitar gathering!


Fact:
Fender rarely mentions Fullerplast, or the way it prepares its bodies before applying Lacquer. If they mention it at all
So, when someone tells you that a Fender "nitro-cellulose" or "nitro" finished guitar will sound better, have more warmth, or will dry out... they really don't have the full story.
When did Fender start the plastic coating process, and why?

Most experts agree that Fullerplast was started to be used by Fender in 1963

The most time consuming part of finishing a solid guitar body, is the process of filling the wood pores, and allowing the paint to lay flay, with a gloss found on Grand Pianos, or automobiles. Fender needed a fast and easy solution in order speed up production during the guitar craze of the early 1960s. Encasing the wood in a smooth, hard, "glass" jacket would eliminate up to 20 hours in each body prep. Fender even experimented with a hot dip that resembled a candy apple method. The problem was that the dip mixture would need to be at a temperature that would damage the wood, or cause body moisture to create "steam pops" in the coating

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The strongest reason for the people to retain the right to keep and bear arms is, as a last resort, to protect themselves against tyranny in government.

Thomas Jefferson

fact like is said for use who own the highway one
reaYl dont care FACT!

Strat2004
I'm not the one looking for a argument as you know if you consider my attitude towards making peace between you and me and others also. I refuse to leave myself and comments undefended. Your attitude towards the guitar you love is the correct one. You love it and no one can tell you otherwise. Just the same way i feel about my MIM and makinglemonade did everything he could to disparage some 8months ago. My basis for liking my guitar above others is exactly the same as yours. It just seems to fit better. I dont want to denegrate the Highway one. If you look back a few pages you will see i retracted the statement i made earlier in this thread knocking it. The negative statement (now retracted) was very much a knee jerk response to my frustration with you that we are well past now.
I just dont want untruths based on conjecture or opinion to be spread as fact. It does no one any good least of all the customer. The guitar stands or falls on its own merits, as i've stated previously its a big seller. That means more merits than failings in the eyes of the guitar buying public. Who can argue with that.

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No no and no

hang around long enough makinglemonade and you will
see its mostly the same 3 to 4 people all time i dont have
to say who they are you figure out who they are and it wont take
long.